Education Committee, Hillary
Starting a Green Party book club. Study Green Party philosophy. Sunday, March 12, 4:00 PM, first class. First book: Ecology and Socialism, by Chris Williams. Once a month. Location: Grind Core, South Philly.

1. Outreach Working Group, Margie
Welcome Party, February 4th at William Way LGBT Community Center, 13th and Spruce, 12:00 – 2:30. Potluck. Invite members as well as interested individuals, and other organizations in Philadelphia. Spreading word, flyering, Twitter, Facebook, emails, phone calling.

The GPOP City Committee Election will take place at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, February 22, at Shissler Recreation Center in Fishtown.

3. Cheri Honkala Campaign for PA Representative in District 197
Kensington, ran for Sheriff of Philadelphia, ran as Jill Stein’s running mate in 2012. Request for Endorsement to run for State Representative of District 197.
a. Corrupt history of Democratic Party leadership in the 197th District.
b. Special Election because Leslie Acosta is being imprisoned.
c. Democratic Party nominating Freddie Ramirez; he runs three mental health facilities.
d. Highest opiate deaths in Kensington. Highest poverty in Kensington.
e. Name recognition, but no money.
f. Running to WIN.
g. ENDORSEMENT BY CONSENSUS. Honkala for the 197th!

Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday, February 4, to help us welcome new members to the Green Party of Philadelphia (GPOP). We had a fantastic turnout, with more than 45 people in attendance and a beautiful potluck spread. William Way LGBT Community Center was a great setting for our party. It was a standing room only crowd during the talks given by our featured speakers, Kristin Combs and Cheri Honkala. We raised money for Cheri’s campaign for State Rep in District 197. People also volunteered to help Cheri’s Campaign in the upcoming Special Election on Tuesday, March 21.

If you missed the party, don’t fret. We’ll be hosting another social gathering this summer. Please stay tuned for those details!

Check out some pics from the party (below), and please join us at the next GPOP General Membership Meeting at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, February 22, at Shissler Recreation Center, 1800 Blair Street, Fishtown, Philadelphia.

Margie Neary, co-chair
GPOP Outreach Working Group

Galen Tyler, GPOP City Committee Chair

Greens welcome new members

Kristin Combs, featured speaker and former Green Party candidate for Philadelphia City Council At-Large

Cheri Honkala, featured speaker and Green Party candidate for State Representative in District 197

Cheri Honkala, candidate for Pennsylvania State Representative in District 197, has been endorsed by the members of the Green Party of Philadelphia (GPOP) at their January 25 General Membership Meeting.

Green Party of Pennsylvania endorsed Cheri Honkala at their State Convention on January 29. Honkala will campaign as the Green Party candidate in a Special Election scheduled for March 21. She ran for Sheriff of Philadelphia in 2011 and for Vice President of the U.S. in 2012.
“Democrats have been playing games with our lives in Philadelphia and especially inDistrict 197, and I plan to do everything I can to change that in Harrisburg,” Honkala said at the GPOP meeting in Roxborough.

Honkala, a formerly homeless, single mother, co-founded the Kensington Welfare Rights Union in 1991 and, in 1998, launched the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, where she currently serves as the National Coordinator.

“Cheri has worked tirelessly on behalf of families who face homelessness and poverty long before she ever considered running for office,” said Galen Tyler, chair of the GPOP City Committee. “She knows their pain and the real struggles they face everyday because she has walked in their shoes.”

Chris Robinson, the GPOP membership secretary, declared, “The Green Party is proud to run a candidate with Honkala’s qualifications, dynamism and unbridled opposition to poverty.”

The Special Election is scheduled for Tuesday, March 21, to fill the seat left vacant by convicted felon Leslie Acosta (Democrat), who resigned in January after pleading guilty to a federal felony charge of conspiring to commit money laundering. [Volunteer for Cheri Honkala's Campaign in PA District 197.]

The Green Party is an independent political party founded on the four pillars of nonviolence, grassroots democracy, ecological wisdom and social justice. For information about the next Green Party meeting, please call 215-843-4256 or email gpop@gpop.org. Visit the Green Party of Philadelphia’s website at www.gpop.org.
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